Friday, June 08, 2007

This Fan Is a Gamer

We've told you about our friends at Project 119, who are trying to visit every Division I-A stadium. Now imagine trying to attend a game at every I-A stadium. That's the goal of a graduate student and Alabama fan living in Tuscaloosa.

"I want to experience what makes each college football stadium and fanbase special," he writes. "Huge stadiums like Tiger Stadium at LSU are famous, but I'm equally interested in attending a game at Middle Tennessee State just to see what it's like. I know there are fans of smaller teams that are just as passionate as fans of the bigger teams and I want to experience their traditions and their stadiums as well."

This is going to take time. Joel has only six stadiums under his belt, and with a goal of visiting five or six stadiums a season, his mission would be accomplished in 2029.

"I try to mix and mingle at tailgates and often try to find people on message boards in advance of the games that will either make suggestions to me about things to do and see in a particular town/campus [where to eat, where to tailgate, what gameday 'must-sees' exist for their school] or better yet, try to find someone who will show me around on gameday.

"My site aims to capture my experience of a home game of every team in the country. To make it more fun for myself and because people [especially football fans] love statistics, I keep stats on how many miles I've traveled, how the home team fares when I'm present, how much I've spent on tickets, attendance at the game, etc. I include maps that show the route I travel to games and include scans of the tickets."